From the Publisher "I feel like God wants me to run for president. I can't explain it, but I sense my country is going to need me. Something is going to happen and, at that time, my country is going to need me. I know it won't be easy on me or my family, but God wants me to do it." So said then-Governor George W. Bush to a few trusted friends about the 2000 presidential race. As president, Bush has continued to bring his deep religious belief to his job-a fact that has delighted the nation's conservative Christians and distressed many others. That Bush has appointed likeminded Christians to high posts-including Secretary of State John Ashcroft, who was once quoted as saying that America had "no king but Jesus"-has only fueled the controversy. So have Bush's support and funding of faith-based initiatives. And with his administration swearing to keep the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, a matter which the Supreme Court will take under consideration this fall, many are left wondering: Whatever happened to the separation between church and state? But Bush's faith is an asset to his presidency and not a weakness, argues Stephen Mansfield in his provocative new book, The Faith of George Bush. In this spiritual biography of the president, Mansfield shows that Bush uses his faith to help him be a better leader (and man and husband and parent) without allowing it to dictate policy decisions. Said his close friend, Commerce Secretary Don Evans: "It gives him a desire to serve others and a very clear sense of what is good and what is evil." With anecdotes that are both inspiring and eye opening, Mansfield traces the arc of Bush's spiritual (and not-so-spiritual) life from his childhood to the present. - from Amzon